BC pellet mill moves to Chpp Toronto, ON – Nechako Green Energy and Pratt & Whitney Power Systems announced plans at the CANBIO annual general meeting in mid-October to add a heat recovery power plant to its Premium Pellet operation in Vanderhoof, British Columbia.Pratt & Whitney Power Systems has been awarded a contract to deliver a 2 MW biomass heat recovery power plant for Nechako Green Energy Ltd. The plant will provide clean, carbon-neutral power, and marks the first ever Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) installation in a forest products facility built by Turboden in North America. Turboden is a Pratt & Whitney Power Systems company. “This biomass-based ORC unit is the first project of its kind in a Canadian mill, with significant potential for replication across the sector,” said Alan Fitzpatrick, president of Nechako Green Energy Ltd.“There is a tremendous opportunity to unleash clean energy generation from biomass resources using this technology. This ORC unit will allows us to become much more energy and cost efficient.” The Turboden ORC unit includes a special evaporator/preheater and turbine And will operate at 280 degrees Celsius, providing the pellet plant with 2 MW of renewable electrical power at max load.The plant produces 140,000 tonnes of high-quality, premium-grade wood pellets annually, and the ORC unit uses thermal oil from an existing biomass system to burn the mill’s residual hog fuel and waste bark, which would otherwise be sent to a landfill. GreenHouse adds Green Heat A Montreal greenhouse has installed a high-tech biomass heating system to cut costs and greenhouse emissions. Located just south of Montreal, the Les Serres Lefort Inc. specialty greenhouse unveiled its new heating system, designed and managed by Jean Gobeil & Associés, at an open house on November 18. The renewable energy system includes two high-performance 6 MW boilers from Compte-Fournier linked to an open-buffer tank of 1.3 M litres and a hot water distribution system (provided by Starbrite Manufacturing) to heat the over 6.5 ha of greenhouses. This will also mark the North American premiere for the installation of a Compte-Fournier system. Look to the next issue of Canadian Biomass for a feature on this new biomass heating system and its operation. in BrieF... Dolbeau, QC Renewable energy producer Boralex Inc. is closing the door on its troubled Dolbeau wood-residue plant by permanently shutting the idle facility and taking a financial write-off. The 28-megawatt co-gen plant, which has operated sporadically since 2009, has been indefinitely closed since April, affecting 30 to 40 workers. The closing of AbitibiBowater’s adjoining mill disrupted the supply of wood and sale of steam, forcing the company to look for alternatives. abbotsforD, bC Biomass Secure Power Inc. says its first pellet plant will be constructed in Cowichan Lake, British Columbia, and will quickly move to torrefied pellet production using proprietary technology. The plant will be built on a 30-acre site and will initially have one production line producing up to 250,000 tonnes of pellets per year. Glenevis, ab Calgary based FireBox Energy Systems Ltd. Will build a demonstration biomass facility on Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation Reserve #133. The John plant will cost an estimated $60 million and will generate approximately 30 MW of clean, renewable, electrical energy. Construction on the demonstration phase is expected to start early in 2012 and to take approximately 13 months to complete.Once the project has been successfully commissioned, FireBox and partners will develop a 270 MW biomass facility on the same designated land. Montreal, QC Boralex Inc. is selling its US-based biomass electric plants – including four in Maine – for $93 million to ReEnergy of Albany, New York. The Maine plants, which convert scrap wood to power, are in Ashland, Fort Fairfield, Livermore Falls and Stratton. The deal includes a facility in Chateauguay, New York.